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Galaxy Express 999 (* unfinished project due to DVD release - lots of info *)

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Hi all,
This is a japanese movie from 1979. It has had three VHS releases here in the US, two dubbed (one butchered) and one subbed. There is a Korean DVD in print that features subtitles from the American sub (or at least that’s where I think they come from). After realizing this was an official R3 release, instead of offering it, I am instead requesting that someone help me hunt down the un-edited english dub at a decent price; that way, I could time it to the DVD. The dub IS out of print on VHS (and never got the DVD treatment), so that <span class=“Italics”>should</span> be legal.
Combining a few summaries and putting my own words here and there, I’ve wrapped up the plot.

“Young Tetsuro Hoshino is about to embark upon an epic journey of discovery, as he sets out to avenge the death of his beautiful mother who was killed by the hands of Count Mecha - only to become a trophy in his Time Castle. But Tetsuro gets more than he bargained for when he finds himself accompanied by the lovely Maetel, the beautiful woman who rescues Tetsuro from the clutches of the police. Maetel bears more than a haunting resemblance to his late mother, a fact that confuses Tetsuro. Aided by none other than Captain Harlock and Emeraldas, the young boy sets out on his incredible journey. His voyage will take him to GE 999’s final stop… and perhaps to the key to man’s apparent immortality: the mysterious mecha planet in Andromeda, where human beings can trade in their organic bodies for a metal one… one that can live forever!”

Does it sound interesting?

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I would think this is pushing it. The R3 release is a legit release with English subtitles so it wouldn't count as "preservation." Timing the two English dubs to the DVD release would probably count.

OT: I've had this set for a few years and it's worth the money to track down a copy. I think I spent $17 shipped for my set.
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OK, so I found a place to get the dub... but $24 is a little high for a VHS isn't it :/. Is there anyone who already has the dub?

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I have the uncut dub on VHS, which I copied from a rental tape several years back. I've been wanting to have it synched it up to the R3 Korean DVD and have a disc made with both English and Japanese tracks with the subtitles. Send me a PM and maybe we can work something out.
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Bud, your PM's are off. If you could turn them on, that would be great.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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You, sir, have your PM.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Thanks, so am I. I'd also like to find that iso score that is on the real Korean set, however all I can find are what I think to be bootlegs without them.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I'm interested in the iso score that my set would have had if it wasn't shrunk, does anyone have it?

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I have been working with bkev on adding the English audio from Viz's dub over the Korean DVD version. My copy of the audio is taken from Viz's out-of-print uncut dubbed VHS.

I have successfully timed the audio to the Korean DVD and will send a copy of the audio file to bkev. We are working on a making a DVD with the Korean video and the English dub audio. I'll be sending the English audio to bkev and see what he wants to do with it, if he wants to make his own independent edit or use the one I am planning.

I am personally making my own edit using the same materials but am specifically aiming for a bilingual DVD (English/Japanese audio) utilizing the video from the Korean DVD and the English subtitles from it as well (the subtitles are the same as those from Viz's out-of-print subtitled VHS release). I will be looking for someone to torrent it once it's done, possibly bkev if he can do it. That's all for now.
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Originally posted by: guiltyspark
I would think this is pushing it. The R3 release is a legit release with English subtitles so it wouldn't count as "preservation." Timing the two English dubs to the DVD release would probably count.

OT: I've had this set for a few years and it's worth the money to track down a copy. I think I spent $17 shipped for my set.

I'd rather do that

Matter of fact, I could do better than that, I have the R3 DVD set of both GE:999 and Adieu GE:999, plus English dubs of both films from the VIZ Video releases (which I think are the best you'll ever hear for this film), not to mention the stupid Roger Corman "New World" edition of the first film despite the fact it blows but amusing for what they did to Harlock!
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Toledo, you´re welcome to do it on your own - or better yet, help me and animebuff (as I have no prior experience...) he says he´s ripped the audio for the first movie, and right now I´m waiting on it from him. I´d like to see you do the second movie, if you would send me a PM if you are interested.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Originally posted by: animebuff
I have the uncut dub on VHS, which I copied from a rental tape several years back. I've been wanting to have it synched it up to the R3 Korean DVD and have a disc made with both English and Japanese tracks with the subtitles. Send me a PM and maybe we can work something out.

I've made an MKV out of mine, but found the English track to somehow go out of sync near the end of the film due to some pitch adjustment I didn't made, so I just kept making edits constantly every couple of minutes to keep it in sync, still not that great over how to do this but I try.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Originally posted by: bkev
Toledo, you´re welcome to do it on your own - or better yet, help me and animebuff (as I have no prior experience...) he says he´s ripped the audio for the first movie, and right now I´m waiting on it from him. I´d like to see you do the second movie, if you would send me a PM if you are interested.

Haven't gotten to the second film yet myself in creating an MKV out of personally. I already pawned off my VHS copy of the first film I had the dub on but still have the one for the second I didn't get around to watching yet (having already saw it subbed on the R3 disc). I still need to figure out proper authoring of DVD's or how to create audio/subtitle tracks therein (since many here have that talent past me).
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Hmm... I can make avi's, put the two audio tracks on (I doubt I could handle the subtitles), and then create VTS files... so it'd be bare-bones, no DVD release if I were to do it - I don't even know the right program to use ATM.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Originally posted by: bkev
Hmm... I can make avi's, put the two audio tracks on (I doubt I could handle the subtitles), and then create VTS files... so it'd be bare-bones, no DVD release if I were to do it - I don't even know the right program to use ATM.

Heh, I pretty much went with VirtualDub, Goldwave and MKVJoiner for my effort. The English subs I had was an .srt file I downloaded someplace.

Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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hi Studio Toledo,
I saw your post awhile back on a certain Usenet anime group and was thinking of contacting you for the mkv file.
I have already finished timing my rip of the Viz dub audio to the Korean DVD video.

I just need to extract it from the finished video file and send it to bkev afterward. I don't have the dub audio for "Adieu Galaxy Express 999", so your copy of that movie's dub audio would be pretty helpful.

EDIT: I just spot-checked the very last scene where Tetsuro is chasing the 999 and it is very slightly out of synch in a few places. So, since you did some additional editing your track may be better after all. I'll see what bkev wants to do. I'm still sending him my edit.
My edit is still watchable, but not 100% perfect synch like the original Viz tape was. Ocean (the dubbing studio) used a process called WordFit, where they tried to perfectly match each lip flap.
Somehow I think Viz (or Ocean) may have tampered a little with the frame rate. The audio in my edit comes on correctly when a character moves their mouth, but voice stops before the mouth does at times.
It's funny, because I did my own restoration of this film back in 2000 where I composited the same dub audio over a letterboxed Japanese VHS tape and it seemed a little better. Hmmm.
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Originally posted by: animebuff
hi Studio Toledo,
I saw your post awhile back on a certain Usenet anime group and was thinking of contacting you for the mkv file.
I have already finished timing my rip of the Viz dub audio to the Korean DVD video.

I just need to extract it from the finished video file and send it to bkev afterward. I don't have the dub audio for "Adieu Galaxy Express 999", so your copy of that movie's dub audio would be pretty helpful.
I'll get around to it.

EDIT: I just spot-checked the very last scene where Tetsuro is chasing the 999 and it is very slightly out of synch in a few places. So, since you did some additional editing your track may be better after all. I'll see what bkev wants to do. I'm still sending him my edit.
My edit is still watchable, but not 100% perfect synch like the original Viz tape was. Ocean (the dubbing studio) used a process called WordFit, where they tried to perfectly match each lip flap.

Mines more like yours.

Somehow I think Viz (or Ocean) may have tampered a little with the frame rate. The audio in my edit comes on correctly when a character moves their mouth, but voice stops before the mouth does at times.
It's funny, because I did my own restoration of this film back in 2000 where I composited the same dub audio over a letterboxed Japanese VHS tape and it seemed a little better. Hmmm.

It's not so much a problem of tampering with the audio or visuals as VIZ's copy of the film differed from the master used for the Japanese/Korean DVD releases, and it only went out of sync in a few places where there are reel changes (indicated by those little circles on the top-right of the screen if you noticed). The last half-hour of the film was where I had the problem occurring and only assumed it was a fault in the pitch of the audio/picture if it was time-compressed a bit (the movie lasting roughly 120 minutes so I assume VIZ wanted to squeeze in promos in that fashion than to run out of tape).
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Originally posted by: Studio Toledo

It's not so much a problem of tampering with the audio or visuals as VIZ's copy of the film differed from the master used for the Japanese/Korean DVD releases, and it only went out of sync in a few places where there are reel changes (indicated by those little circles on the top-right of the screen if you noticed). The last half-hour of the film was where I had the problem occurring and only assumed it was a fault in the pitch of the audio/picture if it was time-compressed a bit (the movie lasting roughly 120 minutes so I assume VIZ wanted to squeeze in promos in that fashion than to run out of tape).

Actually when I dubbed the Viz audio over the Japanese VHS version, it never went out of synch. It pretty much ran fine the whole way to the end of the film. Maybe it might have to do with the older Viz and Japanese VHS versions being done on analog transferring equipment and the newer Korean/Japanese DVD master being done with digital equipment.
Unfortunately, my old VHS composite of the Viz dub over a Japanese VHS looks overly dark when compared to the DVD version. Japan used different IRE settings on their analog videos than the US did.

Unfortunately, Windows has been acting strange with me and I'm having trouble playing my timed edit. I'm sending bkev my rip of the Viz dub that isn't timed to the DVD video. I've got other things to do like school and work and can't spend time on the project now. You guys can work on it without me. Sorry about that.
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I do plan to return to editing the audio and video but it won't be finished for a while since I need to work a few kinks out with my computer. I do plan to still make my edit available once it's done.
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Originally posted by: animebuff
I do plan to return to editing the audio and video but it won't be finished for a while since I need to work a few kinks out with my computer. I do plan to still make my edit available once it's done.

At least you have something to do. I tend to have free time around the middle of the week, but have to work as usual the rest of the time.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

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Studio Toledo, may I see your MKV? In making my AVI, I failed. The aspect ratio stretched to 4:3 although I set it to 16:9, it's rather compressed, and it so far does not play in VLC (strangely enough, it plays in WMP). I'm using DVDx, which split it into two parts as well. Anyone got a good program for me?

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Could you perhaps send me the MKV file too, Studio Toledo? I have been having trouble with my files too.
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Originally posted by: animebuff
Could you perhaps send me the MKV file too, Studio Toledo? I have been having trouble with my files too.

I had to edit this message to state that I forgot what film we were talking about and thought up another film entirely. I'll have to go back and see what I have and post again once I find it.
Yours truly,
Chris Sobieniak

For more mindless entertainment....
My LiveJournal Page
The Online Video Depository - For all your daily video needs!